OSCE Releases Guidance on Protecting Trafficking Survivors and Appoints Special Representative Against Human Trafficking
Friday, May 14, 2004 10:30 AM
On May 14, 2003, the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) announced the publication of a handbook to guide OSCE participating states in creating and sustaining a National Referral Mechanism to protect and promote the human rights of trafficked persons. The handbook can assist OSCE participating States in implementing the OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings, which encourages the establishment of multidisciplinary teams to develop and monitor anti-trafficking policies. This development follows on the May 13 appointment of Dr. Helga Konrad as the OSCE Special Representative on Trafficking in Human Beings by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy. Dr. Konrad, former chairperson of the Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, has stated that "[i]t is my intention to tackle all the dimensions of human trafficking, not just trafficking for sexual exploitation but also trafficking into forced and bonded labour and in particular trafficking in children and minors." From OSCE Press Release Dated 13 May 2004 available here.